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so im starting to play battletech with a few guys that have played for a while and they gave me some clan mechs. they gave me a man o' war, uller, ryoken, thor, and daishi.
So i guess my question is what do i take in a 7500 BV lance?

Like i said im new to the gme have always loved the story, and playing the mechwarrior games on pc so where should i start?

That is a nice starter of `Mechs that give you a good feel for the various weight classes within the game (at least on the Clan tech side of things).

Do you have a `Mech design program? www.solarisskunkwerks.com provides a free program that will allow you to tailor a force with BV in mind. Play around on there and see what configurations of the Omnimechs that you have minis for will fit into a 7500BV force. One thing to remember is that Clan Assault class 'mechs (Daishi) can burn through BV points quickly, especially with a better than average pilot, so squeezing that Daishi in may be difficult.

Welcome to the game. It is a lot of fun, especially if you land a cockpit hit with a Gauss Rifle or ER PPC!

sounds awsome thank you

SSW is pretty swell. I recommend it highly.

Clan 'Mechs are a LOT more expensive BV wise than their Inner Sphere counterparts. at 7500 BV, I'd guess you will get three of them in there with 3/4 pilots. And that would probably be the Thor, Ryoken, and maybe the Man 'O War. At 7500 any Daishi is going to eat half (or more!) of your BV with a decent pilot.

With Clanners you need to get as much bang for your BV as possible, since they cost more. Go for ER PPCs and Gauss Rifles if you can, big damage weapons with good range. Smack your enemies before they can respond effectively!

Well you're already on the right starting path - the Ryoken's the best 'Mech in the game.

I second HBMC's comment hehe

Congratulations on your enty to the BT universe. Looks like you're off to a great start from some very generous friends!

There's some good BT knowledge at Dakka, but you owe it to yourself to check out the official forums for Battletech at bg.battletech.com/forums

For starters, you are going to need a copy of the core rulebook "Total War".

Then you will have to pick an era to start with. The era will give you an idea of what variants are available for your mechs. No sense in picking a loadout now, only to find that it is not available or severely outclassed in the era your friends are playing. I'd ask your friends which era they play most often and then pick up the "Technical Readout" and "Era Report" for that era. When you decide which Clan to use, then you can pick up a Field Manual for the clan (or group of clans) to learn more about the background.

well they mostly play the succession wars and i have the readouts for most of the clan invasion era mechs. but i just dont know where i should go from here i am leaning to wolfs dragoon, and clan coyote but havnt gone through all the clans yet

All the Clans use all the various types of 'Mechs, but Clans favour certain 'Mechs over other ones. So while every one uses the Mad Cat/Timber Wolf, Clan Wolf favours it more than many of the others.

Looking at the five they gave you, you have a Jade Falcon slant (Uller, Ryoken & Thor). The Man'O'War is more a Clan Wolf thing, and the Daishi a Clan Smoke Jaguar thing, but as I said all Clans use all 'Mechs to some degree, so you could easily justify a mixed Falcon Star that has those two 'Mechs in it. Sort of a 'heavy recon' Star where the Uller pinpoints target for the Daishi and Man'O'War to smash while the Ryoken and Thor flank the enemy.

I could be wrong, but Wolf's Dragoons might not have access to all the omni's you have in the invasion and definitely not during the succession wars.

Clan Coyote is an interesting choice, Looks like "Field Manual Warden Clans" is where you'd find most info on them. Unfortunately it's out of print, but you can still find it used on amazon for less than retail.

Yeah, the Dragoons aren't going to have any Clan Omni's at that time. Not for a while.